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| Sausages with Tomato Ragout and Creamy Polenta Mash. This simple recipe evokes thoughts of winter meals tucked away in a snowy mountain village. Instant polenta itself is cheap and quick, cheap, and a pleasant change from potatoes, pasta or rice. The ragout is simply a basic Nonna's tomato sauce and can be used as a pasta sauce base as well. Double the recipe for 4 people. The ragout reheats well and can be made days ahead and stored covered in the fridge. |
For 2 servings:
2 fresh sausages per person (any flavor, but not the processed or pre-cooked variety)
1 tablespoon olive oil (or use whatever cooking oil you have).
1 small brown onion skinned and thinly sliced and diced into small pieces.
2 large cloves of garlic minced or finely diced (or 1-2 tsp ready-minced).
1 400gm tin chopped tomatoes (chunky is best, but cheapest wins).
1 tablespoon tomato paste.
1 cup ready-made chicken or vegetable stock or 1 stock bullion dissolved in 1 cup water (you could make the liquid quantity up using liquid from the squeezed frozen spinach - see below).
Juice of 1/2 a lemon (omit if you have no lemons)
1/3rd -1/4 cup Puy or French Lentils (the Puy or French lentils are worth buying, but can be substituted with red or yellow lentils - simply wash and add to mixture at the same time as the tomatoes without pre-cooking).
1 frozen spinach portion per person, defrosted, squeezed in your hands to remove excess liquid (or a large handful of leaves, chopped).
Ground salt and pepper to taste
Polenta (NB: quantity is for 2 servings. For 4 servings, click here)
1/2 cup (125ml) full fat milk
1/2 cup ready-made chicken stock (or 1/2 bullion cube dissolved in same quantity of water)
1/2 cup instant polenta
Grated parmesan cheese
Method
Prepare Puy or French Lentils
Bring a saucepan of approximately 1 cup of water to the boil with around 1/2 tsp table salt. Turn down to simmer. Rinse and drain the lentils. Add lentils to simmering water and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Remove from heat and drain into sieve. Set aside.
Ragout
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan to a medium heat. Add onions and garlic and fry for 2 minutes. Turn heat to low. Add tinned tomatoes, tomato paste and stock. If you're substituting red or yellow lentils, add those now. Mix thoroughly and simmer on low, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until the mixture thickens a bit. Turn off the heat.
Start heating the frypan cook the sausages and measuring out the polenta ingredients.
Stir the lemon juice, drained Puy or French lentils and spinach though the hot ragout mixture. Note you want the spinach to stay bright green, not cooked to death and colorless. Season with ground salt and pepper to taste.
Sausages
Fry the sausages in a separate frypan or BBQ until browned and cooked through. While the sausages are cooking, prepare the polenta as below.
Polenta
In a medium saucepan heat the milk and stock to just boiling, stirring with a fork. Turn the heat down to low to avoid scalding. Keeping the saucepan over very low heat, pour in the polenta slowly continuing to stir with fork for about 1 minute.
The polenta is ready once it thickens after 1-2 minutes and comes away from the side of the saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat and mix in the grated parmesan cheese.
If a softer creamier texture is preferred, slowly add a small splash or two of additional milk until it reaches a consistency you like but shouldn't be 'sloppy' or 'soupy'.
Bringing it all together:
Spoon the polenta onto individual serving plates, place the hot cooked sausages on top, spoon over the ragout, finish with chopped fresh parsley and serve.